


Tutorial

by Beryll (Rynthjan)



Series: Sir Yaden [15]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Leichnam, Psychics, Violence, Zombies, demon, phoenix empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-27 10:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynthjan/pseuds/Beryll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yaden takes Myriam on her first mission</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

With a happy screech, Vian dashed after the small stone Yaden was hovering back and forth across the beach for him to chase. 

Vian and Siva were barely a year old, but they were already much more mobile than a human infant of that age. They moved on hands and knees at a speed that would have turned watching over them into a full time job if they hadn't also been entirely unwilling to move anywhere that didn't have a clear line of sight on one of the adults they trusted - namely Yaden, Colin, Ivan and Darren.

Luckily neither of them was displaying any kind of psychic talents yet. But Yaden was quite sure that eventually they would, considering their genetic make-up.

They were very aware of their surroundings and quite independent in many ways already, but on the other hand, they showed no inclination to communicate in any other way than snarling, purring or screaming. After extensive testing, Darren had decided on a diet of raw meat and milk for them, both of which they devoured in amazing quantities. 

While Vian spent his most of his waking hours running around at top speed, exerting as much energy as possible, Siva watched. For hours she just sat in one place, carefully observing her chosen subject. Currently this was a small bird, which perched on an outcropping of rock where the beach ended at the cliff. It was cracking sea snails by carefully picking them up in its beak and smashing them against the rock. Siva sat near the rock, entirely motionless and watched with rapt attention. 

Her silent concentration resonated with Yaden's own calm as much as Vian's exuberant joy at life resonated with his happy knowledge that his family was doing well.

The last few weeks had been rather hectic with various small missions all over the Empire, but at least he and Ivan had almost always managed to be home for dinner. Now there seemed to be a lull in emergencies. Spending time with his family felt like a reward for all the hard work to Yaden. 

Last night, they had left the twins with Darren and Yaden had taken Colin, Ivan and Myriam out to Imperial City for dinner and to see a movie. The latest Sir Rage flick had been the one they managed to agree on. Afterwards, they had gone to the Amadeus Fairgrounds where Ivan managed to shoot a god-awful teddy bear monstrosity for Myriam. She had been duly grateful, even though at the age of thirteen she considered herself above needing such toys.

Yaden smiled. It felt like only a second ago that she had been a crying bundle in his arms when he had found her on Shiraz and now she was a teenager. An incredibly smart, hard working teenager. She didn't miss any of her scheduled trainings and all her teachers were full of praise for her intelligence and diligence. He was incredibly proud of her. 

Soon, they would have to start thinking about where to send her for her annum nobilis, and the thought of not seeing her for another whole year after he had already lost one when he and Ivan had been stranded in another galaxy hurt. But he was sure she would benefit greatly from the experience and he wouldn't deprive her of it by clinging. It was bad enough that he himself had missed out on the opportunity because his mother had never allowed him to leave Pandora.

They still had another year before they would have to let her go, though, enough time for Yaden to fulfil his promise of taking her along on a mission when she was ready. She had a firm grip on her talents now and she used them with finesse and strategic planning. She lacked Ivan's combat training, of course, and she still had a lot to learn, but she was ready.

Yaden had asked Commander Li Ma to let him know when a simple, short mission came up. Something easy but serious enough that Myriam wouldn't feel babied. So far there had been nothing, but it was only a matter of time until something fitting crossed the general's desk.

With a triumphant roar Vian tackled the stone he had finally caught up with, drawing Yaden's attention back to his son. Snarling and growling he rolled around with it, obviously pretending that it was some kind of prey. Yaden watched him with a smile. Whatever his boy would grow up to be, it would surely be something fierce.

Satisfied wit his victory, Vian dropped the stone after a little while and nimbly made his way over to where Yaden was sitting on the sand, soaking up sunlight. With a happy little sound Vian crawled into his father's lap, curled up with his face buried in his own tail and started purring faintly.

He would also grow up to be loving and kind, Yaden thought and gently stroked Vian's ears. His children truly were a blessing, each in their own way.

-

A few days later, Yaden found Myriam sitting at the table beneath the old olive tree, doing her homework. He had received word from Commander Li Ma that he had a mission that might fit Myriam perfectly. After a quick check of the file the Commander had sent him, Yaden agreed. Now he just had to see if his daughter was interested and available.

While Yaden had never enjoyed studying and homework, Myriam actually seemed to thrive on it. She devoured books and data disks with a rapturous appetite. Especially the scientific study of psionics, theurgy and magic fascinated her endlessly and she was quickly surpassing Yaden and Ivan in this field. Yaden had pulled some strings to get one of the Phoenix Knight Tower tutors to work with her and supply her with advanced study material. If his daughter wanted to become a brainiac, he wouldn't stop her.

Now though he hoped he would be able to pry her away from her books for an afternoon of zombie hunting.

"Hey sweety." He greeted her, leaning against the table to catch a glimpse of what she was working on. Mindnumblingly boring lists of nobles, it looked like. "How's homework going?"

Myriam squinted up at him suspiciously. "You look like you want something, dad." She noted.

Yaden grinned at her. "Observant as always. Now pretend I don't want something and answer the question."

She snorted with a mix of amusement and annoyance but played along. "It's going well. I'm actually done. This is just extra so I won't have to do it tomorrow."

"Good." Yaden smiled happily. "Now, do you remember I promised you would be allowed to go on mission with me when I thought you're ready?"

His daughter nodded with cautious interest now showing in her eyes.

"I think you're ready." Yaden said.

Myriam frowned at him, obviously waiting for the catch.

Yaden laughed. "So if you have nothing better to do, would you care to join me?"

"Like, now?" Myriam blinked at him in surprise, but her suspicion was rapidly giving way to enthusiasm. 

"Like right now."

"Of course!" Myriam sprang to her feet, changing from nerdy book worm to eager rookie hero in the blink of an eye. "I'll just get my pack and put some shoes on!"

"Grab sturdy boots." Yaden called after her, as she dashed into her cottage.

"She is too young." Colin said behind Yaden.

When he turned around, he found his husband leaning in the doorway of the kitchen cottage, drying his hands on a kitchen towel. The worried frown on Colin's brow was quite familiar. It was always there when Yaden left for a mission.

"She is old enough." Yaden corrected gently. "She has been old enough for a while now. And it's just a harmless zombie hunt."

Colin's frown deepened. "My mother was killed by zombies." He reminded Yaden.

With a little sigh Yaden went over to him. "I know, love," he conceded, "but Myriam is quite capable of reducing any zombie to cinders before they get even near her. And I will be there as well." He tried to reassure Colin. "She will be safe. Give her your blessing and she will be even safer."

That made Colin huff indignantly. "Of course she will have my blessing!"

Myriam chose that moment to reappear, now wearing sturdy combat boots, long pants, shirt and jacket instead of the shorts and bikini top she had been sporting before. She also had a small rucksack on her back. Probably stuffed with notebooks, Yaden thought somewhat amused. When she noticed Colin, her expression changed from exuberant joy to dismayed annoyance.

"Dad!!" she exclaimed and hurried over to Colin. "I'm old enough to go!"

Yaden couldn't stop a chuckle from escaping him, but he quickly recovered under Colin's glare. His lover carefully rearranged his face to a benevolent smile before he turned to their daughter.

"I have already consented to you going." He informed Myriam gently.

"Oh." As quickly as they had appeared the storm clouds on Myriam's face were gone again. She wrapped Colin in a grateful hug.

Colin stroked her hair and looked at Yaden with a pained smile. 'Be careful.' He mouthed soundlessly. Then he leaned down and kissed his daughter's brow. "Go with my blessing and Ynagra's protection, my love." He said.

"Thank you, father." Myriam replied and disentangled herself to give him a proper Youh'Kai bow of a warrior honouring a priest.

Then it was Yaden's turn to be kissed, a lot less chaste then their daughter. "Try to be home for dinner, eh?" Colin reminded them. "We were going to grill that tuna. Would be a shame to let it spoil."

"We'll do our best." Yaden promised and then turned to Myriam. "Ready?"

"Absolutely!"

"Let's go, then."

They were first ported to the Phoenix Knight Tower. "So the PR team can take a few photos of us." Yaden explained, as they waited at the big porter platform for the PR vultures to arrive. "Our mission is on Leichnam. A small village has asked for assistance with an unusually strong zombie infestation centred on their graveyard."

"Hmm. Must be really bad if Leichnami ask for help from an outsider." Myriam commented, proving that she really had learned a lot since she had been adopted by Yaden and Colin.

Then the PR photo team arrived and put them through some ridiculous poses, alternately smiling at the camera like morons or scowling like there was no tomorrow. They shared a look of mutual relief when they were finally cleared to leave.

Yaden couldn't help a burst of fierce pride for his daughter when they stepped onto the porter platform together. As excited as Myriam was she still managed to carry herself with an air of calm professionalism. Her declared plan for her life was to become a Phoenix Knight as well, but whatever she ended up doing, he had no doubt that she would be awesome at it.


	2. Chapter 2

The village they arrived at looked like any other Leichnam village. It was shrouded in thick mist that was creeping across the ground like a living carpet. The cottages were vague shapes, leaning against each other, hidden behind of curtain of cold drizzle. Wiry grey moss was growing between the uneven cobblestones of the small square that seemed to be the centre of the village.

The planet felt just like Yaden remembered it, cold and wet beneath his feet, but deeper down, warm and cosy and dormant. It reminded Yaden of a sleeping teenager, entirely unwilling to be woken up by anything and resistant to all disturbances.

There were no records of who the first settlers on Leichnam had been, but historians agreed that it had probably been some sort of radical, religious cult who moved there. They had thwarted any efforts made to get a terraforming project going, even though the barren planet was barely habitable. When the Gilded Republic fell, Leichnam had been one of the first planets lost, due to the fact that they had somehow managed to temporarily block their jumpgate. 

They had been rediscovered by Habichtswald forces and been claimed by that House, much to their displeasure. The Habichtswald had made a valiant effort to get a grip on the hostile population, but in the end, the persistence of the Leichnami had won out and in an unprecedented coup, they had evicted their Habichtswald ruler by making a deal with House Dracon. 

The new owners hadn't been welcome either, though.

Some of Leichnam's main products were still rebel groups, violent cults and insane terrorists.

Leichnami just didn't like outsiders and that didn't just include people from off planet, but also those from the next village or the neighbour across the street.

"Nice zombie weather." Myriam commented with what Yaden thought of as her scientific scowl. "Perfect fungus conditions."

Yaden nodded. "Though they normally don't spread as quickly as these seem to do. The report says the infestation is centred at the graveyard. We best have a look there first." 

"Don't we need to check in with someone?" Myriam asked. "I mean, tell them that we are here to help or something?"

"You don't talk to a Leichnamer." Yaden told her with a grin. "You wait until they talk to you."

As if he had conjured him up with his words, a figure emerged from the fog on the other side of the square, the fact that he or she was carrying a lit lantern raised in one hand identifying it as a non-zombie.

"Who goes there?" a raspy, male voice called out.

"I am Sir Yaden of the Phoenix Knight." Yaden answered. "The Emperor has received your plea for help and sends me to aid you."

The man shuffled closer and they could make out that he was wearing a huge, grey leather duster and an equally huge, grey floppy felt hat, dripping with rain. He looked like he had just climbed out of an article about Leichnami in some encyclopaedia. 

"A Phoenix Knight? Here?" he inquired incredulously.

Yaden smiled at him charmingly, unfazed by the hostile reception. "The Emperor cares for all his subjects." He delivered another Phoenix Knight standard. "What can you tell us about your zombie infestation?"

The man stared at them quietly, raising his lantern a little higher to get a better look and at the same time allowing them a clearer view of his wrinkled face. It seemed frozen in a perpetual frown, eyes squinting in a perfect rendition of deepest suspicion.

Finally he seemed to realize that they and Yaden's cheerful smile wouldn't go away until he answered their questions. Heaving a suffering sigh, he said: "They've been attacking villagers left and right. Come out of nowhere, the bloody beasts, running and jumping like you wouldn't believe." He turned and pointed away from the square into the fog. "Graveyard's that way."

He clearly hoped to be rid of them now, but Myriam didn't indulge him.

"Are they infectious?" she asked. "That is, have they bitten anyone who turned into a zombie afterwards?"

Even without being a telepath, Yaden could read the man's thoughts which amounted to 'why is this kid here and why is she asking me questions'. It was a good question, though, showing that Myriam was taking this mission as seriously as she should.

"Well?" Yaden added the weight of his authority when the man remained stubbornly silent.

The man grumbled something under his breath about pushy outsiders, but again he relented. "Not to my knowledge. They just tear folks apart."

Yaden decided to have mercy with the poor man. "Thank you." He said kindly and gently herded his daughter in the direction of the graveyard before she could come up with more perfectly sensible questions. 

The man glared after them for a little while, but then Yaden sensed him moving off into one of the houses. He was pretty sure the door would be securely bolted.

"So that is a proper Leichnamer." Myriam commented with scholarly interest. "I have to say, Papa Colin isn't a very good sample."

Yaden chuckled. "No, he isn't." he agreed. "He is as sweet as a vanilla cream puff."

Myriam looked at him like he was slightly insane. "I wouldn't go that far." She huffed, but then she got back to the subject at hand. "Doesn't sound like we are dealing with fungus zombies here." She decided.

Fungus zombies were a common occurrence on Leichnam and only on Leichnam. The special kind of mouldy fungus that settled in corpses and somehow reanimated them didn't survive in any other climate. Fungus zombies were slow, moderately infectious and easy to avoid by simply moving out of their way.

"Yes." Yaden nodded his agreement. "What other kinds of zombies do you know about?" he asked, turning their mission into a live lesson in zombie lore.

"Well, there are also cybernetically animated corpses, curses, demonic possession or demonic magic, good old-fashioned necromancy and of course corpses moved by a kinetic." Myriam listed. "Given the look of this place I would guess demonic something, necromancy or cursed."

"So how do we deal with this?"

Myriam grinned up at him. "Burn the zombies, find the person who made them, burn that person as well."

Yaden smiled back at her and affectionately ruffled her hair. "That's right, my darling fire bug."

They had followed the cobblestone road out of the village and into a dense pine tree forest. Now the road became a muddy dirt path and to their left they could make out a solid structure rising high - the graveyard wall. Since fungus zombies were such a common occurrence, all graveyards on Leichnam were surrounded by walls high enough that no normal zombie could climb them. This way, fungus zombies could be contained and at regular intervals dealt with by the gravedigger who usually doubled as zombie exterminator. Of course a magically animated zombie would be a lot more dangerous and pose a serious threat to a village gravedigger.

This wall was a good bit taller than a man and built from thick stone. Somewhere behind it, Yaden sensed slow movement, which suddenly stopped. Apparently, their approach had been noticed. Another strong indication that they weren't dealing with fungus zombies, which only noticed things in their direct vicinity and line of sight. Moments later, the movement resumed with feet coming towards the wall, accompanied by a long, low moan.

"Seems we are getting company." Myriam announced cheerfully.

Yaden sensed how she concentrated and gathered heat. They both faced the wall, curiously waiting for whatever was climbing the other side.

Then a decaying hand reached over the top, followed quickly by an equally decaying head, showing bits of skull already. The eyes, however, were filled with a sickly green glow and the zombie groaned hungrily when he caught sight of them, scrambling to make it over the wall and get to them.

He just managed to pull himself up a little more, then his head exploded in a spectacular fireball from Myriam, with little pieces of charred, decaying flesh blown back into the graveyard.

"Glowing eyes? Really?" Myriam commented with distaste. "I'm putting my money on demonic."

Behind the wall on the graveyard they heard more moans and groans, rapidly approaching. They now had the zombies' attention. Yaden spread his senses out more, looking for that typical sickly-sweet taste he had come to associate with demons. It hung all over the graveyard, but to the south of it there was one spot where it was so thick it made his stomach roll.

"I'll open the wall for us, you keep the zombies at bay." He told Myriam calmly.

She took up her fighting stance, hands folded over her stomach, fully concentrated. It was still a little weird for Yaden to watch how differently his cerebral daughter used her psi compared to him and Ivan. But she was just as effective.

Yaden parted he stone wall before them and opened a view onto a whole horde of zombies in various states of decay, quickly closing in on them, glowing green eyes staring at them hungrily.

A wave of heat rolled out from Myriam, igniting after it had passed Yaden and blasting into the zombies with cherry red fire, burning them down.

They moved through the gap in the wall and Yaden closed it behind them. The graveyard was the typical collection of simple graves. No one on Leichnam bothered with deep or elaborate graves when corpses were quite likely to just get up again. Crypts were especially shunned since there was hardly anything more annoying than a crypt full of noisy zombies that had to be broken open for them to be removed.

"How do we defeat our friends here most quickly?" Yaden continued his daughter's lesson, leading them towards the spot he had sensed.

"Get rid of the demon and the zombies will fall properly dead again." Myriam answered promptly.

"And how do you get rid of a demon?"

"Demons can't be killed." Myriam lectured, clearly reciting from some text book. "You can only ban them from our reality, back to hell. Most effective is theurgy of any kind. If you don't have access to that you can always destroy their physical anchor in this world."

Yaden smiled at her. "Very good, love."

She grinned back. "Basics, dad." She answered, but was still glowing with pride at his praise.

There was plenty of movement now, with zombies from everywhere on the graveyard converging on them, making it obvious that they were all controlled by the same entity. Soon, Myriam was quite busy keeping them at bay. Crushing wasn't exactly the most effective way of dealing with zombies, so Yaden encased them in stone since they only needed a temporary solution.

With Myriam burning away most of the fog, they got a clearer view of where they were going. The spot Yaden had sensed earlier was dominated by a huge, gnarly, old tree that towered over a space clear of graves. Below the tree, they found the source of the zombie infestation - a gigantic maggot creature lay curled around the trunk, dripping greenish ichor.

"Definitely demonic." Myriam said, as the creature unwound itself and glared at them from a myriad of tiny, glowing green eyes. "And not very high ranking." She added, as the zombies they had been battling fell inert, now that the demon was not concentrating on them anymore.

Yaden agreed with her assessment. The creature seemed barely intelligent. "Ready to toast your first demon?" he asked his daughter.

Myriam beamed at him. "You mean I may?" she exclaimed happily.

The beast made bubbling, hissing noises and spewed acid in their general direction which fell just a little short of the target.

"All yours, my dear." Yaden answered with an inviting gesture. He stepped back, ready to aid his daughter should she need it.

Myriam squared her shoulders and then a first small, but very hot fireball hurled at the demon. It was too surprised to squirm out of the way and was hit in the side. An incredible stench of burning, rotting flesh filled the air. The creature screeched in pure hate and wiggled forward with frightening speed, a huge maw, filled with needle sharp teeth opening below the many eyes. Myriam danced out of the way and kept moving, hitting the demon with fire here and there, methodically searching for a weak spot while dodging attacks.

It screeched especially loudly when hit right behind the cluster of eyes. Yaden watched as Myriam gathered her power to herself. Then a volley of fireballs launched at that exact spot from all around the demon.

To vary the starting point of her attacks like that was a trick his daughter had worked long and hard on. It required a hell of a lot of fine control, but she had mastered it.

Now she used it for a surgical strike that blasted deep into the creature.

It collapsed without a sound.

"Hurm." Myriam grunted disappointed and turned back to Yaden. "That was easy."

Yaden smiled. He had monitored the demon closely and he had not sensed any change in the sick aura of the monster yet. It was still alive, if not kicking. He didn't warn his daughter. It would teach her a valuable lesson not to turn her back on a foe she hadn't utterly vanquished.

Behind her, the demon's carapace was cracked open with a sudden rip and something resembling a giant mosquito burst out, greenish wings whirring as it flew at Myriam. She turned around just quickly enough to gape at it in shock, when it was brutally squashed out of the air by a hurled boulder the size a small hovertruck.

With an angry scream Myriam launched a blistering wave of fire at the demon while it was still trying to recover from the hit. Its delicate wings caught fire immediately. This time, Myriam didn't stop her attack. More and more fire poured from her, engulfing the demon until it was reduced to a small, smoking pile of ashes.

"Fuck." Myriam muttered, clearly rattled. "Is it dead now?" she asked, never taking her eyes of the ashes.

"Yep, gone now." Yaden answered, feeling immensely proud of his daughter's courage and self-control. The sickly feel of the demon was evaporating rapidly and the zombies who had still been standing around had collapsed with the departure of their master.

Myriam shuddered visibly. "Thanks, dad." She said softly.

"You're welcome, love." Yaden replied. "Now let's figure out how it got here so we don't have to come back next week."

It didn't take them long to figure out that the old tree was the village's hanging tree and apparently had been for more than a century. All the violent death and negative emotions had formed what Myriam called a 'magical sink hole' which weakened the fabric of reality and allowed demons to manifest. The manifestation of this demon had used up some of the sink hole, but she guessed that it would be only a matter of time before another something came through.

"Looks like we will have to bother the villagers again after all." Yaden said with a smirk.

They made their way back over the graveyard, stepping over corpses that had collapsed where the zombies stood and were now harmless again. It took them only a few minutes to get back to the village. Yaden had been worried that they would have to kick in some door to actually be able to talk to someone, but that turned out not to be necessary.

In the central square of the village, quite a few people stood now, all of them wearing the same grey leather coats and floppy felt hats to keep the drizzle at bay. They were arguing with a taller man, also wearing a leather coat, but with a floppy leather hat. They all fell silent when Yaden and Myriam stepped into the square.

"That's him!" one of the villagers muttered, presumably the one they had met earlier.

"It's my pleasure to inform you that your zombie plague has been dealt with." Yaden announced, not bothering to introduce himself again.

The villagers muttered in surprise and the leather hat wearing fellow stepped forward. "Uh… thanks, I guess?" he said, sounding not very grateful. Probably he was a village elder, some sort of sheriff or even the local gravedigger.

"The Emperor likes to see all his subjects safe and happy." Yaden used another stock phrase. "You will have to clean up on the graveyard since you have a lot of corpses lying around. I also very strongly suggest you pick a new hanging tree and keep changing it every few years or you will get the same trouble or worse again."

"Erh… yes sir." The leather hat wearer acknowledged grumpily.

Yaden smiled at him brightly. "It was a pleasure helping out." He said. "Have a nice day."

Then he quickly had them ported out and back to the Phoenix Knight Tower, before they could be drawn into any arguments.

"Do you think they will heed the advice?" Myriam asked doubtfully as they headed from the porter circle towards the PR office to have some post-mission pictures taken.

"I'm pretty sure they will change the tree now." Yaden said. "I'm also pretty sure they won't do it regularly. Leichnami are allergic to change. But that is a problem we can't solve." He smiled down at his daughter proudly. "You did great, love."

She smiled back shyly, obviously already reviewing her performance and finding all the things she thought she could have done better. "Thanks, dad." She said.

"No, really, you did." Yaden repeated. "Mistakes are there to learn from. Don't worry about them." He grinned. "And never forget: we fulfilled the most important mission objective: we'll be home for dinner."


End file.
